NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Optical Telescope Element Pathfinder and Parker Solar Probe models are now on permanent display at the Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy Center, providing insight into testing ...

The heavily armored Parker Solar Probe has traveled to within just 3.86 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) of the sun’s surface — what NASA calls “hyper close.” It’s the third time it has ...

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum welcomes two new acquisitions to the collection—the James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) Pathfinder and Parker Solar Probe model. The Pathfinder is a ...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Sixty years after NASA set the goal, and three years after its Parker Solar Probe launched, the spacecraft has become the first to "touch the sun." The Parker Solar Probe has ...

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. An illustration of the sun's elusive Alfvén surface, the point of no return beyond which solar ...

A solar sail is no longer just a graceful idea for propellant-free flight; it is becoming a materials and deployment problem that engineers are finally learning how to solve. That shift matters ...

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe captured images of the sun 3.8 million miles away. Images collected by the probe include some of the sun’s outer atmosphere. The images are helping scientists figure out the ...

Parker Solar Probe reached "perihelion," the nearest point to the sun in its orbit, on Dec. 13, 2025. - ASA / Johns Hopkins APL / Steve Gribben illustration A NASA spacecraft is making a close ...

The probe got an unprecedented view of solar wind and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) during the approach, which could be invaluable for our understanding of space weather. "We are witnessing where ...

NASA's pioneering Parker Solar Probe is poised to make its closest-ever approach of the sun on Christmas Eve, a record-setting 3.8 million miles (6.2 million kilometers) from the surface. When two ...

NASA's Parker Solar Probe made history with the closest-ever approach to the sun last December, and we're finally getting a look at some of the images it captured. The space agency released a ...